Tag Archives: tangent artists

Goodness, this is hard to keep up on weekends! Well, all I can do is my best. Sadly inspiration and energy seems to find me at 10:45pm, so it’s a scramble to finish before I collapse from exhaustion. I can’t keep doing it this way. I’m going to try to find a time in the day where my energy is at a better place.

Here’s Day 17, It’s Mama Maxie, the Carnival Tycoon from an upcoming game. Some severe proportion problems, but I will fix them. I like her dress in any case.

Mama Maxie by Monica Marier, copyright(c)2016 Tangent Artists

And here’s today’s ink. This is a concept design for Elanai, the Mechanic from my upcoming SciFi book. He’s a Luo-Drigue—basically a lilac-colored space elf, since my daughter loves my elf characters so much and she said we needed one. Who am I to argue. Elanai is a cantankerous Rimmer who hates the kids and everyone else on the ship, but they’re pretty much the only people in the galaxy who tolerate him.

A slight deviation from my concept art, I’m combining business with pleasure today. Tangent Artists going to be publishing our first volume of collected comics, so I decided to work on the cover for said volume. The covers are going to be Tarot card themed, so here is Linus, the Hanged Man.

Fan fiction: it’s something all writers do (whether they’re aware of it or not). When it’s good, it’s an innocent joyride in someone else’s vehicle. Worst-case scenario, it’s a naive early attempt to be the next ____ (Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, George R.R. Martin etc.) with new names on the characters and a worn old plot device. In both cases fan fiction is written for the sheer love of a series, created out of a desire to see our deepest fan-desires put into words. There are thousands upon thousands of forums and websites dedicated to fan fiction, probably in numbers to rival the #1 commodity: porn.

While I myself have dabbled in the art of fan fiction, I decided early on, that if I was going to be serious about my writing, I should steer clear of other people’s works and instead concentrate on my ability to write original stories with my own characters and canon. I spent years building the worlds of CRIT! and Skeleton Crew among my other works and I think I did a good job. Fan fiction helped me build those skills, but I was ready to fly on my own now.

So I said goodbye to fan fiction and never looked back. I haven’t written any since 2004. I tell everyone in my panels that fan fiction is a skill builder—an exercise to build story-writing skills without the hassle of creating a new world and characters. It can help form new authors, but no self-respecting author wastes the bulk of their effort on it. Messing with copyrighted works makes publishers uncomfortable and it’s a sign of unprofessionalism.

At least, it used to be that way.

Now more and more big-name franchises are plumbing fan fiction for writers. This decade, entertainment companies have discovered that fan fiction is an untold wealth of hidden talent, and what is more, their fiction is a testing ground for how well they work with a given canon! Doctor Who, Star Trek, and other properties are taking note and are asking to see fan fiction from future writers!

…And I don’t have any.

I’d disciplined myself for so long, with the aim of building my credibility, that I’ve shot myself in the foot. I’ve lost 3 writing opportunities so far because they’d asked for a sample of fan-fiction and I’d had no time to write any.

I’m already struggling to make my mark on the internet. This just seems like an anvil dropped on my head. I also have to admit that I was wrong about fan fiction and lament for the stories I never wrote—ideas that have long since disappeared into the ether.

The game has changed again, and I’m left holding 3 aces in a game of Jenga.

Now that the Rogue’s Guide is completed and launched, I’m turning my attention more to the Must Love Dragons relaunch and it’s been sloooooooooow going. A lot needs fixing which leads to more fixing and further flaws… you guys ever seen the money pit?

(Property of Universal Pictures)

At least the foundation is good. (I’m laughing as I type this because we just found out we have to replace the house’s trimming and get the roof inspected here at Wineberry House. Plus we have ants.)

In the meantime, here’s a draft of the new cover art we’re going to be using for MLD (some alterations in text, and art etc. pending). Overall I’m pleased with it. I love how Linus looks kind of cool, but also like you want to punch him in the face. We’re going to do similar half-face images for the other 2 books in the works. I like the half-face because it leaves a lot of room for the reader to fill in the rest with their imagination. I hate seeing an image of a character I like and not have it match the image in my head.

(Btw, my brother modeled for this. I think he did a great job)

copyright(c)monica marier, 2016

The only other thing of note text-wise is that Wendria’s name will be changed back to Kiyana to match the CRIT! comic, since Both CRIT! and MLD will be launched by the same publisher, Tangent Artists. The Linus Saga, in essence, will be presented as a “novelization” of CRIT! despite the deviating story-lines. Nothing will change storywise other than the names and a few minor details, but the company feels we should unify the whole setting to better match our existing publications featuring Linus Weedwhacker.

I’m very pleased to announce that Tangent Artists has sent our newest book to the printers! This month at RavenCon we’re going to launch our newest book, Steal this Tome!

The Rogues Book (somewhat vandalized by Bart)

This book is presented as a policeman’s instructional vandalized by a young thief and republished as his own work and is the 3rd installment in our Wolf Press class guide. If you loved the Handbook for Saucy Bards and the Cleric’s Guide to Smiting, you’ll enjoy the same snappy writing, irreverent humor, and (of course) a gripping short story featuring the cast of CRIT!

We’ll be hosting a book-launch tea-party at Ravencon with snacks, prizes, tea, and silly voices.

Werrrrll good news for those who enjoy my Tangent Artists work. I’ve just finished my contributions and edits of our group-project: Steal This Tome, A Book For Thieves.I hope to post a sneak preview shortly so you can see what you’ve been waiting for.

I was going to post about how I’ve been blocked and rather paralyzed by fear and doubt these last few days, but you know? Screw that. I have been busy. I’m only disappointed with myself that I haven’t done everything, and that’s frankly out of the question.

A lot of my friends are going through this right now too. The bad economy, job instability, the fear of what may happen politically this year, as well as all of our own personal problems—we all have a lot on our table. Maybe our friend got published, maybe someone we know was asked to be a guest at a convention, maybe that chance we didn’t take really paid off for someone else? We’re not them, and we can’t compare their success to our own. We all have our own stories.

We have to look at our victories, no matter how small, and revel in them. Don’t bask in the glory for too, long, you have a job to do after all, but every victory helps us launch ourselves further. More importantly, we set a precident for ourselves.

I can do this, because I’ve already done so much.

So instead of being a sad sack tonight, I’m going to celebrate. I’m still writing and drawing. I’m still hoping that someday it will make enough to help my family. I have all the time in the world, and nothing but possibilities.

Every time someone I admire dies, I try to draw an in memoriam picture. This is the only one that’s ever come out looking right.
Writers like to have a “stock cast” when they’re looking for characters to bring to life. We’ll often enlist our favorite big screen actors to play roles to help us flesh them out.
I cast Alan Rickman several times in my books and series.

He gave Gruthsfield his deadly chilliness,

Tyrrus Gruthsfield, by Monica Marier

Vilori his hauteur and dry humor,

Vilori Reagan, by Monica Marier

and Dunstan his grit and his soul

Dunstan by Monica Marier courtesy of tangentartists.com

…not to mention countless other gifts to characters. And in losing him today I feel like I’ve lost a muse and an imaginary friend. I’m blubbering a bit as I type this.
God speed you on your journey, Alan, and continue to inspire from beyond the stars.